Brazilian Cheese Bread (Pão de Queijo)

When I was working in LA, every week my colleagues and I would go to The Farmers Market at the Grove for the Brazilian BBQ. Pampas Grill—the stall selling the BBQ—is probably one of the most popular eateries at the Farmers Market. There is always a long line of patrons lining up for the hot-off-the-grill, juicy, and scrumptious Brazilian BBQ, including the Hollywood kind. One time, the ex-husband of Courtney Cox, David Arquette and his entourage were lining behind me.

While the meats served at Pampas Grill are amazingly good, I went there mostly for the Pão de Queijo, or Brazilian cheese bread—the mini cheesy puff in ball shape that is always soft but chewy, puffy, and addictive. I would load up a bunch of them to go with the meats. Lunch was always good.

Earlier this year, when Elise of Simply Recipes posted her Pão de Queijo recipe, I was so excited to make it but I was pregnant then and followed a very strict diet that precluded me from eating cheese. Anyway, time flies and now that Baby G is here, I am sort of on a cheese binge these days. I finally made the Brazilian Cheese Bread. I finished all of them in practically 15 minutes and immediately made a second batch. I just love these soft, fluffy, chewy, and cheesy Brazilian cheese bread. They are absolutely delightful and takes less than 30 minutes from prep to out of oven.

This Brazilian Cheese Bread (Pão de Queijo) recipe is a keeper and I am sure this is going to be one of my favorite baking recipes.

have never heard of brazilian cheese bread but this looks so good! when you said bread, i was worried abt having to knead dough/let it rise etc etc but there’s none of that here. cant wait to try out this recipe!

Great photo! You can pick up the Minas Gerais cheese at the Brazilian Mercado on Venice Bl in Culver City. Other cheeses will work of course if you can’t find the queijo Minas, but it’s a whole different bite with that Minas Gerais cheese, now imported from Brazil. Bom apetite!

Pre-heat the oven in medium high. Put the cassava starch in a bowl. Boil the cooking oil, the milk and salt together. As soon as they boiled turn off the heat and mix them with the cassava starch with a wooden spoon. Add the eggs one by one until the it’s kinda loose but good enough to work it with your hands. Add the cheese and mix it. Make small balls with your hands and put them side by side in a pan with enough space so they don’t touch each other. Put them in the oven for about 30 minutes or until they become golden brown at the bottom.
Enjoy :)

Hopefully i could be of some help and i’m sorry if there’s anything mistranslated.

Absolutely great. My wife, who does not like cheese, devoured these. Took some to a party last night, should have baked more. As with every recipe I have tried from your site, it was excellent. Keep up the great work!

have never heard of brazilian cheese bread but this looks so good! when you said bread, i was worried abt having to knead dough/let it rise etc etc but there’s none of that here. cant wait to try out this recipe!

Thanks for this recipe (and for your website). I have tried it several times, and I LOVE them. But I do have one question: Although the texture outside is perfect, the center appears semi-translucent and the texture is a little gummy. I have tried baking them longer, but they still appear that way, and only the outside gets more crisp. Is this how the center should be? (Oddly enough, the day after I bake them, the center actually changes into a more bread-like look and texture).
Thanks again, I look forward to your book!

Hi Bee, I hope you are enjoying motherhood!
I made the cheese bread today and was wondering if they are really supposed to be super moist and elastic in the middle? I didn’t have a mini-muffin pan, so I just used the regular sized ones. I did bake them for more than 20 min. Is there a way to salvage the batch, can I re-bake them for a few min. considering they have already cooled?

Hi I’ve made these using recipes I’ve found online but they don’t quite taste exactly like those sold in bakeries, albeit they’re quite similar. Hmm
I’m wondering if you’ve tried the bread from provenance in Singapore or sun moulin at the basement of shaw?? Because these buns are sold there and I’m wondering if you know how to duplicate them? (:
Oh and I’m wondering if the type of cheese used matters, I tried with cheddar an parmesan and once with parmesan but both were rather similar.
Also, I do not like the smell of olive oil when baking- will it be better if i use butter or are there any better alternatives??

YES! I finally found a pao de queijo recipe that is simple! I’m korean but born and raised in brazil. i never knew how to make pao de queijo, i’d either buy them or make them from the packages where u just mix water (by the way, those are terrible!) but ill definitely try these out and see how they are. thank yoU!

I wound up doubling the recipe, and to one half I made it as written (with a bit less salt) and the second (and third) batch I added more salt and more cheese. They were good, but chewy. I shared them with a Colombian and he said they were just like a South American bread he grew up with and he loved them. My family devoured them, so they must have been alright :P

Just made this earlier – I must have overbaked the first batch cos’ they turned out hard & crispy but yummy all the same! The second batch was much better – crunchy on the outside & chewy on the inside. Thanks for the recipe ! By the way, I wonder if I could omit the cheese & make it plain, to eat with kaya? They do remind me of ‘kaya balls’ !

OMG thank you so much for posting this! I work at a bank and one of our clients brought in these amazing rolls a couple of times and each time I have missed him and didn’t have a chance to ask him for the recipe. I also had a hard time finding the recipe online because if you look up cheese and rolls you will come up with a million plus results. I didn’t know these were Brazilian rolls. I am so excited to try this recipe out! Thanks again!

My husband and I LOVE pao de queijo! This recipe was much easier than the last one I tried and they worked out really well. They were a bit salty for my taste so next time I’ll probably cut back on the salt. Thank you for the quick and easy recipe!

I have made these twice now, the first time I made it, I followed it to the letter and my son finished all of it.. The second time I made it, I added some bacon bits and then cut back on the salt. It tasted great!
thanks for all your wonderful recipe.

hi! ive made this recipe twice and i always hava a problem with it sticking to tin. ive put oil liberally using canola oil. is it because i used canola oil instead of olive oil? this recipe is really yummy, may husband and i can easily eat these babys in one seating. hope u can help me with this, thanks so much for the recipe. :)

Hi,
I made it yesterday, but i dont get the hollow inside the cake. N mine just like mochi or kue kranjang inmy country Indonesia. What’s wrong? Help pls. But the taste is very good, just i want the hollow like yours. Thanks for sharing the recipe

As Kate mentioned earlier, my cake also deflated few minutes after out from oven.
I converted every ingredients in ml, grams, and celcius. I used tapioka, kraft cheddar which gtated manually by me, condensed milk stir in water. Bertolli olive oil….. Help pls

One of the things I love about this site is the eclectic mix of recipes, from Asian to Western baked goods! Bee, I have your cookbook, and also visit this site frequently as I’ve found your recipes to be delicious, to our taste, and very reliable. I’ve not found a clunker yet.

This bread, just amazingly delicious. I live in the sticks in a rural area, had to Amazon the tapioca flour. Made my first batch, looked weird, never seen “batter” this thin and runny. Whatever, I thought, put it in the oven and don’t even peak for 15 min. I didn’t expect much from the way the batter looked. Peaked in at 15 min, and wow! Looked like mini popovers! When they were done, three of us polished off 24 of these in record time while still warm and wanted more.

I’ve made them several times since then, it’s one of my standard recipes now. I’d had cheese bread before in Latin areas, nothing to compare with these in flavor chewiness. Outstanding!

Hi Sev, thanks so much for your sweet comment. Awww, I am so glad to have you as a reader. I know, this is the most amazing cheese bread recipe ever and they are so addictive. I finished mine in no time and had to make them the next day. I am so glad you love these. Thanks for your kind support! :)

Hey!
I live at the Pão de Queijo’s land, the state of Minas Gerais, in Brazil. Here, we usually make these buns with cured cheese, like parmesan cheese (here, we have the amazing Canastra cheese). Another tip: we do it in another way. Boil the milk, the oil and the salt together, combine with the tapioca and mix it well, making the liquid get all the grains of flour. Let it cool and add the cheese and the egg, kneading with your hands. Next, you don’t need to put it on the muffin tin. Just put some oil in your hands and shape the dough into the buns. You gonna have another effect on this, trust me!
BTW, I love your site!

I am Brazilian there are different recipes, I’ll try to get an original recipe that I make here, obs I’m not good at English then I will use the google translator, sorry for mistakes

come on

ingredients

1 cup milk
50 ml of soybean oil
50 ml of water
250 g of polvilho de mandioca but in the case of you is the substitute flour tapioca
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
250 g of Minas cheese (half cure or standard) butin the case of you use grated Parmesan

How to prepare

1 – In a saucepan place water, milk and oil until it begins to boil
2 In a bowl place the tapioca flour and the salt
3- After it boils, add the mixture to the pan in the bowl of tapioca flour, scalding it
4- When the dough is warm, add the egg and cheese
5- Knead the dough well until it is uniform and little sticking hands
6- Take the dough in the refrigerator for 30 minutes, so that the dough is firm
7 Remove the dough from the refrigerator
8. Grease hands with oil and form balls with the dough, place the balls on greased baking sheet with oil
9. Bake in preheated oven until the cheese rolls are golden

*the oven to 180 degrees Celsius on average takes 12 minutes throne

enjoy

*you can freeze the dough into balls and place when baking as direct and straight to the oven does not need to thaw

Does high altitude make a difference? I am at 7000 ft, I wondered if the the temperature or time need to be adjusted. My nephews wife is Brazilian and makes these all the time. But they are not at our altitude.. Just found your site through this recipe and it looks like a great one. I will be trying more of your recipes.. Thanks for your help.